


Boys and Ghouls

by Sir_Bedevere



Series: Dragonstone Days [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 21:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Bedevere/pseuds/Sir_Bedevere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Tell us a story, Edric,” Shireen said shyly, “You must have heard some that we haven’t.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boys and Ghouls

**Author's Note:**

> Because they are all so frickin' adorable!

“Tell us a story, Edric,” Shireen said shyly, “You must have heard some that we haven’t.”

She and Devan had invited her cousin to come to the fireside in the Great Hall after dinner. Edric had been with them for three days already and Shireen decided that she liked him. He was a nice person, even if he was loud.

Edric furrowed his brow and pretended to be thinking.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I can’t remember any.”

“Oh you can!” Shireen said, “Please try. We don’t get new stories anymore.”

It was true. Since Maester Cressen died, there was no one who knew as many stories as he did. Maester Pylos tried and sometimes Davos would tell them one about smugglers and pirates but mostly she and Devan would start making them up. Devan was good at it. Sometimes she made him write them down.

Edric looked at her in amusement and scratched his head.

“Well, Uncle Renly did tell me one once, about this castle actually.”

“This castle?”

“Yes,” he nodded seriously, “About all the mad Targaryen ghosts who live here.”

Shireen squeaked and Devan frowned.

“There are no ghosts here, my lady. We would have seen them.”

“Would you?” Edric said mysteriously, “Well if you don’t want to hear…”

“No!” Shireen said, “Tell us. It’s only a story, Devan, it doesn’t have to be true.”

The older boy didn’t look happy but he settled down to listen anyway. Edric stood in front of the fire, casting crazy shadows on the wall, and lowered his voice.

“Since they came to Westeros, every Targaryen has lived here at some point, and most of them have died here. Did you know that?”

“Yes.”

“And do you know what people say, that every time a Targaryen is born the gods flip a coin and decide if they will be mad or not?”

“Yes,” Shireen breathed.

“Well, the mad ones, all of their ghosts live in Dragonstone. They are too mad to know that they have to move on, you see, and sometimes they get angry because they don’t understand what is happening to them. One day, a hundred years ago, they threw all the guards off the battlements into the sea. Then they took the biggest knife in the kitchen and cut the cook’s throat, and then they cut up the kitchen boy and put him in a pot. They are jealous, you see, of the living. So once every ten years they choose someone in the castle who is going to suffer for being alive. And do you know,” he whispered, “That the last time they did it was ten years ago? Any day now they are going to choose one of us and-”

The door to the hall slammed open and Shireen screamed, diving under the table. She hadn’t heard them but Devan and Edric were besides her. She could feel them trembling.

“My lady?” a voice said, a voice that certainly didn’t belong to a ghost, “Edric? Devan? What’s wrong?”

The voice was joined by a pair of grey eyes in a bearded face, peering under the table.

“Davos!” Shireen said, taking the hand he offered her, “We thought you were a mad Targaryen ghost.”

He raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the two shamefaced boys rolling out from under the table. 

“I knew you were not a ghost,” Edric said, “I was just checking that Shireen wasn’t scared.”

“And me,” Devan said.

Davos smiled, rolling his eyes.

“If you are that eager for something new I’m sure I have some you haven’t heard,” he said gently, sitting down on the rug and patting the floor, “You don’t have to frighten yourselves.”

They sat around him and listened. It was another one about smugglers but this time there were knights for Edric and Devan and dragons for Shireen as well. She liked the dragons far better than the ghosts.


End file.
